XLI Incontro di Studio del Ce S E T 317 332 Angela Poletti Politecnico di Milano E mail angela poletti polimi it Key words GIS Real Estate Urban quality Leveraging GIS to Enhance Real Estate and Urban Areas performance The contribution highlights the need for the connection between urban transformation assessment and real estate assessment noting that there is a mutual influence now rarely seen between the parameters involved For this purpose GIS serves as a tool by which to achieve this liaison The list of applications for real estate conducted through the use of GIS its strengths and weaknesses and fields in which applications are still pioneers argues in favor of the hypothesis outlined and give to the assessor a key role in its implementation 1 Combining Real Estate Urban Performance and Geographical Information Systems This contribution is part of the broader study about the assessment s role in the promotion of policies and actions for improvement of the urban transformation practices This assumption builds on the need to make economically viable and attractive choice for the market oriented reuse and improvement of existing assets in order to counter growing phenomenon of urban sprawl It is therefore proposed as a reflection albeit partial in the context of the application made in years using the common language of Geographic Information Systems GIS A more proactive dialogue is needed between the evaluator and other makers of the changes local authorities institutional investors private developers and bank foundations to name a few so that the impact of their choices does not continue to adversely affect future generations Geographic data allows us to view our traditional information by assigning the two dimensions of reference and placing them on a space Space is usually the earth everyday use and many territorial applications but it could be anything such as in medicine or in planetary studies Geographical Information Systems is a complex set of activities organization procedures equipment resources and humans Poletti 2001 who enable us to solve simple and complex problems that have to do with the geography In the case of the real estate market GIS allows us to find relationships between the properties and information about what might Firenze University Press www fupress com ceset

318 A Poletti be near The market analysts provide data and information to investor buyer sellers financiers planners as funding for developments or purchase falls upon lending institutions requiring commitment to funding market analysis Each of these subjects requires a scale of information characterized by more and more specific details Real Estate market analysis is the end of processes designated to document multiple factors in fact the buyer follows his own needs The needs are specific to the individual The smallest nuances in a market can produce a success or a loss in urban transformation especially in the current difficult economic climate Talk of the seller s point of view but there is also the point of view of the occupier and its requirements to meet It should even take into account the environmental performance The transition to a complex building such as an urban transformation area produces more people with problems to be solved which can be connected to geography designers who want to avoid the mistakes of the past educators in search of the winning elements to be transmitted to students building owners and prospects who want information on air quality developers and managers and politicians exploring how best to proceed That encourages the use of mapped data data analysis procedures and the uses of maps fostering an appreciation of GIS as an effective analytical tool in many complex assessment processes GIS applications for real estate started to be used among developers in the early 80s Thrall 1998 in those years the software called Desktop GIS have emerged with reduced costs for access to technology and ease of use compared to workstation platforms even the vector map data with socio economic information have become widespread and distributed more easy to find making these systems increasingly used to support strategic decisions mapping of the census was made available in the late 90 in Italy at the same time SEAT has started to offer products business to business and one to one based on over 1600 socio economic indicators The Real Estate sector was involved in a second boom in early 2000 when the explosion of the net economy gave impetus sometimes uncontrolled new ideas and new applications citing the site map data for U S National Association of Realtors who at the time was just released online over 3 000 000 properties throughout the U S and Casaclick who was the first such structure designed in Italy less fortunate from the point of view of GIS technology Almost in the same year early urban renewal projects had evolved In 1980 redevelopment projects were primarily focused on the physical and economic renewal of decayed urban areas However since 1990 across the EU this approach has been replaced by a more integrated approach to urban regeneration linking stimulation of economic activities and environmental improvements with social and cultural elements We adopt a broader definition of urban regeneration according to which regeneration consists of a comprehensive and integrated vision and action which leads to the resolution of urban problems and which seeks to bring about a lasting improvement in the economic physical social and environmental conditions of an area that has been subject to change Roberts 2000 Colantonio Dixon 2009

Leveraging GIS to Enhance Real Estate and Urban Areas performance 319 From an operational point of view the assessment of the areas of urban transformation is based on the use of integrated and multi level indicators The number of methods used is very high for their classification also based on what aspect of sustainability are capable to catch see Gasparatos 2008 The aggregation of indexes and individual size presents several difficulties Although the data can be standardized and weighted aggregate proves difficult social environmental economic and institutional metrics into a composite index that can be compared on both a spatial and temporal level The monitoring of the impacts resulting from the process of regeneration may be hampered mainly due to the large amount of data to collect and analyze the lack of human resources to be allocated for this task and the urgency of the execution of daily operations which prevents the allocation of time and personnel for this operation In addition another major obstacle may be the lack of statistical data which are not routinely collected from the statistical office of the local city and of the project The last observation relates to the greater or lesser emphasis in considering the sustainability of buildings the situation depends in part on the initial complexity of the case of regeneration i e more or less by the presence of social or economic issues in part by the maturity of the context and greater or lesser strength of the framework used It should relate to the larger scale of the city to prevent the benefits of the same area not going beyond Measuring universally softer aspects of sustainability as some components of social sustainability the well being happiness and satisfaction of the district is difficult At the moment the only effective way to measure these dimensions of social sustainability is through the use of surveys and other qualitative research methods such as interviews and focus groups which can be costly in the long term On the other hand social preconditions social relations housing quality and equitable distribution of housing resources and assets are key components of sustainable housing development Chiu 2003 No special GIS applications are used in assessing the sustainability of transformation areas GIS is used to manage and archive extensive data specially in brownfield to guarantee a complete traceability of operation e g site demolition to carry out constructive discussion with the redeveloper to optimize parameters at stake to map the indicators in the evaluation It should be noted that there is a kind of disciplinary boundary that separates the assessment of sustainability at the level of urban transformation which still belongs to the system of assessments of actions projects plans programs and assessment of real estate within which the sustainability is interpreted as a determinant of the evaluation characteristics of the environment and buildings that may affect its value 2 Features and applications of GIS in the evaluation field The new approach by which they are seen GIS is based on a model prescriptive information that highlights what and why as opposed to a descrip

320 A Poletti tive model of the past that can provide its services through the management of spatial data The complex set of activities organization procedures equipment resources and human as defined above are more specifical Knowledge encompassing map data alphanumeric data multimedia data raster data network data Promotion encompassing metadata data representation using standardized descriptive coding systems based on internationally recognized models distribution to distribute the information according to mechanisms and multi technology platform each time enriching the data with additional attributes limit use statement of limitation of use of profiling patterns of the target distribution policy processing table describes the processing based on logical combinations of spatial and related operations marketing any activity which aims to find and promote new layers information and applications to be returned to the end user Procedures to the definition of information flows with their descriptions all critical aspects of the flow can be highlighted and technical and organizational elements that are crucial to the orderly flow of information can be isolated The resources involved and used can be divided into three main categories 1 technological resources the set of technologies that must be used efficiently to design and calibrate performance requirements according to the described real use Scalable must allow the ability to run the same software on different computers and power means the ability to adapt of users increase the increase and diversification of data required functionality The scalability hardware must provide for the possibility of increasing the performance and computing power without having to change the architecture and technology platform designed and built the start up the system Interoperable the system must be based on internationally recognized technical standards and all the descriptions of the individual components must be designed for the most common synergy between applications Central centralizing technological solutions and information repository to perform overseeing and monitoring the operational activities related to the flow of information Standardized organized according to recognized standards at national and international 2 human resources meaning all of the specific professional and multi disciplinary skills 3 financial resources Following are the main activities of the GIS technology and related activities which the assessor may carry out through them the main advantages and possible problems linked to each activity are highlighted based on direct experiences or case studies The result is a comparative review of factors for and against the use of GIS in Real Estate 2 1 GIS data collection and creating maps Geographic location is the element that distinguishes geographic information from all other types Therefore any data that is entered into a database must be assigned triple of location and attribute any time The data acquisition already structured or new data is a fairly critical part of real estate not only for the costs

Leveraging GIS to Enhance Real Estate and Urban Areas performance 321 There are applications to the corporate real estate portfolio management for the systematic planning and control of a stock of land and buildings with the aim to develop its potential1 Other times the return of GIS maps Maps value is used to spatially represent the results of analysis of change in property values generated by particular situations2 not necessarily developed in a GIS environment More GIS based applications nowadays are available online that distribute data to all users Through open innovation data tools and information can be combined to create new ventures which generate social and environmental value web map builder design the maps It goes from applications presenting the list of properties and connecting them to street network to more complex applications with information related to the presence of facilities near the property this information may be attached to images numerical data on income price and mortgage calculation starting from information entered by the customer The user is largely unaware of the technology used it can deal with a broker who represents buyers and potential tenants looking for specific information for their customers or end users There are more advanced applications for a fee where marketing assessments are offered that place georeferenced socioeconomic data broken down to the census sections in Italy and proprietary databases for example the mapping of the streets of luxury on free smart GIS based maps Google Bing Users are more advanced retail investors and appraisers but they rely on the available parameters to obtain initial information or findings assessment Although the discovery of knowledge is a quiet and well established in its conventional databases application in spatial datasets is a new area but far promising for research Ester et al 2001 The complexity of geographical phenomena Gahegan 2001 together with the large size of spatial data sets justifies the application of knowledge discovery in spatial data sets Finally investors3 and fund managers may decide to design a proprietary sys The cadastral registers where they exist were born prior to the emergence of GIS technology so even where currently developed in a GIS environment many difficulties in use are present In the specific case of Italy cadastral information not endorsed in GIS environment are seen as one of the data bases of territorial government Many projects one in every Servizi Integrati catastali e Geografici per il Monitoraggio Amministrativo del TERritorio SIGMA TER have been conducted to transform cadastral information into geographic information the two major technical difficulties have been encountered regarding the projection system and the symbolism that goes wrong with the logic of object oriented GIS 2 Such as the Value Maps produced by OTP Mortgage Bank in Hungary built on the basis of the detailed database of the National Tax and Customs Office NAV representing the Regional Impacts of the crisis on the property market The minimum units of representation have been the 161 postal code zones of the Budapest area whereas in the rest of the country including the capital 174 statistical micro regions 3 This is the case of ASSIMPREDIL the Association of the builders who created in Milan thanks to its research centre a system called e Mapping to identify the most significant areas for development in this period of severe economic crisis 1

322 A Poletti tem in which to converge their knowledge such as locating the yards of the activities taking place and data from public datasets such as information about the rules of the urban plan or the existing brownfield sites projects related to roads and transport as well as the traditional socio economic data To say that the data is not available because unstructured or paid in alphanumeric format are hardly made available in geographical size is superfluous The use of geographic datasets and or GIS simply to construct and interpreting maps to free systems or to draw knowledge from more complex systems but born for other purposes presents some issues to point out GIS skills and knowledge requirements accuracy issues in datasets availability and accessibility The effective use of GIS is closely related with the understanding of the nature of spatial data and how data quality might influence the final results The lack of clear understanding of data usability and limitations may lead to inappropriate data use or incorrect GIS applications which could render inconsistent or inaccurate results The minimum mapping unit is the preferred measure for the level of detail in a map or in classes of type of representation land use crops The problem with unit area refers to the situation in which the different ways that the study area develop into sub areas produce different results of the analysis Data aggregation removes the individual characteristics of measurements Sheng Han 2006 In Europe although the INSPIRE4 Directive will improve data quality and availability the lack of geographic data preparation and management guidelines can provide false or misleading spatial information Digital datasets may in some cases contain errors Therefore data quality must be controlled to ensure that information is fit for its purpose Similarly data input and analysis processes must be monitored and any issues reported to ensure that results are valid and applicable For instance the representative fraction also often known as the scale is defined for a paper map but it is not well defined for digital data The scale of digital data can be regarded as an indicator of both spatial detail the level of detail available for map making and positional accuracy the possible difference between the true real world coordinates and the coordinates of the data determines both the minimum mapping area and the number of coordinates used to describe an element Scale determines the level of detail in analysis which may change the interpretation of data Any correction of data and its ability to improve implies time and additional costs which are taken into consideration A number of authors e g Lillethun 2002 Bartley 2007 have revealed that data sources are inconsistent across the EU Availability and accessibility Data may be available i e gathered compiled or created but may not be accessible Copyright and confidentiality constraints and costs may limit data sharing acquisition In the cases where particular datasets are not available accessible 4 INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation in Europe INSPIRE Directive 2007 02 EC aims at establishing an infrastructure for spatial information in the European Community

Leveraging GIS to Enhance Real Estate and Urban Areas performance 323 Accuracy and completeness measurements location on a map and feature boundary definition must be precise to ensure spatial meaning Certain datasets may not overlay properly on space may not be spatially accurate or may contain spatial gaps leading to assessment inaccuracies and miscalculations Likewise non spatial information associated with the functions represented objects by attribute tables must be correct complete and accurate to ensure the reliability of results These tables contain attributes and inadequate information that must be completed and or decrypted for clear understanding and appropriate use Furthermore using data at different scales in the same GIS project can be problematic as measures and positional accuracy may be affected Therefore scale considerations must be acknowledged in the assessment process for validity of results The age and currency of datasets vary and their usability depends on their purpose or on when they were updated last Data updates largely depend on data type and the organisation in charge Projection a common spatial reference system projection is critical in a GIS project to ensure correspondence between layers Data in different projections do not adequately overlap and slight inaccuracies may be obtained when changing from latitude and longitude to another projection Where datasets are not up to date they can provide misleading information by not addressing the current state of the environment Therefore the most up to date datasets should be acquired and applied The date of the last update must be taken into consideration for an appropriate use and interpretation The temporal variations can be illustrated by data sets in sequence provided that the modes of representation do not change Metadata is defined as information describing the characteristics of spatial datasets which allows discovering and inventorying them as well as establishing their suitability for use i e quality and their fitness for purpose i e usability Therefore metadata is determining the usability and characteristics of a spatial dataset its quality and the means to access and successfully transfer it The existence of metadata for datasets can help to rapidly identify their availability and determine their readiness relevance and usability for integration in the real estate study Metadata implementation rules were launched as part of the INSPIRE Directive and were officially published as European Regulations in 2008 CEC 2008 5 2 2 Spatial analysis assessment GIS allows further processing and manipulation of stored data by spatial analysis GIS can be done using GIS query that select objects based on certain crite 5 Such rules establish requirements for the creation and maintenance of metadata for the themes listed in the Annexes of the Directive Appendix C to ensure that the Spatial Data Infrastructures SDIs of European Member States are compatible and usable in a community and transboundary context

324 A Poletti ria measure lengths perimeters areas directions and distances transformation from raster to vector given date descriptive summaries including the mean and standard deviation optimization techniques like the location of an object based on predefined criteria the point in polygon polygon overlay spatial interpolation density estimation and potential For more advanced users knowledge can be drawn in a large databases available data mining It can be calculated sums of multiple series of descriptive attributes find dependencies between multiple spatial scales fragmentations and fractional dimension we can solve optimization problems point location routing problems optimum paths Databases can be treated by a frequentist interpretation and in a fuzzy logic in which an object s degree of belonging to a class can be partial These technologies have contributed to the emergence of new approaches in urban studies and in the field of real estate Real estate markets can be analysed in greater detail thanks to computer assisted mass appraisal CAMA relying on the combination of large databases with effective statistical and spatial analysis methods Nowadays the integration of CAMA and GIS is a common and integral process6 but these approaches could not capture the many complex interrelated and significant micro variations within any given neighborhood and could not reduce the determination of location value to an objective process German Robinson Joungman 2000 Hedonic modelling is part of the prevalent statistical analyses used for analysing housing market components A hedonic model expresses the market value of some composite good as a function of its various intrinsic and environmental attributes and reflects the envelope function of both supply and demand sides Can 1990 Can 1992 Dubin 1992 This approach is derived from the consumer theory that states that the characteristics of any commodity determines its utility Lancaster 1966 Applied to the housing market the coefficients of the house price function reflects the probability distribution of the combined buyers and the sellers willingness to pay and be paid for the defined attributes as an expression of their own utility level Furthermore a GIS also helps correcting the spatial discontinuity problem when the spatial dimension is incorporated to the analysis more explicitly than in the standard hedonic model Orford 1999 Wyatt 1995 The Standard 2011 on Mass Appraisal of Real Property of International Association of Assessing Officers states Maps become especially valuable in the mass appraisal process when a geographic information system GIS is used A GIS permits graphic displays of sale prices assessed values inspection dates work assignments land uses and much more in addition a GIS permits high level analysis of nearby sales neighbourhoods and market trends when linked to a computer assisted mass appraisal system the results can be very useful For additional information on cadastral maps parcel identification systems and GIS see the Standard on Manual Cadastral Maps and Parcel Identifiers I AO 2004 Standard on Digital Cadastral Maps and Parcel identifiers IAAO 2003 and Procedures and Standards for a Multipurpose Cadastre National Research Council 1983 and GLS Guidelines for Assessors URISA IAAO 1999 6

Leveraging GIS to Enhance Real Estate and Urban Areas performance 325 In this context it appears that the analysis of housing markets and location choices may contribute to a better understanding of people s preference and the impact of certain urban externalities In order to do so appropriate space sensitive tools need to be developed and validated through empirical studies Understanding the links between residential location choice preference residential market values and externalities may contribute to shape adapted policies concerning tomorrow s planning decisions To the best of knowledge in current research there is a need to better analyse the impact of locational externalities on real estate markets Combining the efficiency of GIS remote sensing and multiple regression analysis it was proposed as a straightforward and easy to use method in order to integrate land use locational externalities in hedonic property models One of the most basic techniques in site selection is to find sites that are just like existing sites This technique involves running radii or drive time reports around a chain or franchise s existing sites to establish some baseline demographic measures Which variables such as age income ethnicity traffic daytime population etc are considered keys to success are determined by the real estate department of the chain Each time a new site is considered reports are run on the site and the key variables are examined or compared to those of existing sites Many commercial Realtors also include these reports in their property marketing literature for prospective lessors As a further refinement to site comparison companies will use site scoring models to rate potential sites Site scoring models use correlation between existing sites sales revenues and the demographic business and other variables in their market areas Careful consideration is given to factors such as store age concept and square footage to ensure that the sites in the sample are as similar as possible The results of the analysis usually yield a set of between 6 and 10 report variables that have either a highly positive or highly negative correlation to the sales revenues of a company s existing locations Sites scoring well pass and sites scoring poorly fail the test Site selection becomes even more complicated when a company begins inserting new sites into a market that already has existing sites Not only must competition be considered but cannibalization of existing store trade areas becomes an issue as well The use of gravity models can to address such issues Gravity modelling is the idea that the probability of a given consumer visiting and purchasing at a given site is some function of the distance to that site the site s attractiveness and the distance and attractiveness of competing sites Attractiveness is typically defined by size but may also be defined by a store s merchandise mix and its appeal to a certain lifestyle Gravity models enabled in a GIS provide users with the ability to do what if analyses for prospective site locations They quantify the extent of a new site s share of a market as well as provide a vivid visual picture in the form of a map of the impact of a new site location Gravity models have proved to be a durable tool in evaluating new site location Searching for a way to predict store sales has led to the use of multiple regression analysis in site selection This technique seeks to identify how all the variables at a site interact with one another to produce a specific sales outcome

326 A Poletti The success of this technique depends on the practitioner s ability to accurately quantify all the factors operations site and location that can affect sales It can be problematic to quantify subjective variables such as customer service merchandise mix landscaping and signage But when applied correctly this technique can accurately predict to a given margin of error the expected revenue of a potential site These models may be loaded into a GIS and used to predict the sales potential of prospective sites However multiple regression models have their drawbacks They can be expensive take a long time to develop and be compromised by the introduction of a new concept merchandise mix or competitor Time or change is the worst enemy of a multiple regression model These models must be rebuilt at least annually to retain their predictive capabilities Changes over time in any of the variables affect the overall interaction of all the variables and thus the predictive power of the model They also suffer from being a black box that many in an organization will not understand or trust Most retailers have little customer information available because of the cashand carry nature of their businesses or the lack of systems to collect customer data Consequently the preceding site selection tools rely wholly on factors that do not include actual customer information However customer profiling is perhaps the foremost tool for finding that next successful site Where customer addresses can be collected whether through surveys delivery records credit card transactions loyalty programs etc the foremost geo demographic segmentation system to profile their customers GIS can be incorporated in the valuation process to give appraisers a spatial perspective of data Assessment offices have used GIS in tandem with computerassisted mass appraisal analysis to deliver more accurate values for tax purposes The natural integration of modelling techniques in real estate and GIS is demonstrated by the core data elements that each requires The concept that GIS is 90 data is explored and used as a starting point for understanding how spatially enabled analysis provides analysts with a greater understanding of data and more importantly the markets that data represents from an entirely new perspective Weighted overlay mapping techniques combine multi criteria analysis MCA and GIS This technique is based on the ability of GIS to combine multiple datasets in a spatially specific manner and their capacity to integrate relative values of significance into each of the datasets layers They allow for the systematic aggregation of co occurring environmental factors and their weights The combination of the Analytic Hierarchy Process AHP Saaty 1981 method with GIS is an exercises in land use planning and could be a powerful combination to apply for land use valuation Analytical functions and conventional cartographic modelling techniques in GIS are based on Boolean logic which implicitly assumes that objects in a spatial database and their attributes can be uniquely defined The inherent constraint of the classical set theory does not allow for partial set membership conditions and imprecise information in GIS The usefulness of fuzzy theory in GIS modelling for urban land evaluation has been tested Sui 1992 The results indicate that incorporating fuzzy

Leveraging GIS to Enhance Real Estate and Urban Areas performance 327 theory into GIS modelling can provide more details about the gradual transition of urban land value than the traditional cartographic modelling approach Fuzzy GIS modelling can also reduce the information loss by obtaining membership grade for each individual land parcel The membership function allows identification of the extent to which a particular area belongs to a valuation class based on given criteria The use of GIS systems and complex patterns of interaction involves appropriate knowledge both a technological nature or of a disciplinary nature and the ability to transfer parts of the whole application processes either internally or externally to the GIS Skilled analysts are usually able to generate more realistic models based on potential as well as technological expertise gained through their experience Incorrect assumptions produce wrong results Appropriate training and experience is required before work on these models This is a key factor in explaining why many companies do not push the use of these models in their real estate services limited to simple representations of spatialized information 2 3 Modelling Modelling attempts to replicate a real world situation and thereby allow experimentation with the replica in order to gain insight into the expected behaviour of the real system under different scenarios GIS is a technique of good flexibility and precision for the planning and assessment in urban areas One of the main difficulties and challenges in the modelling of urban phenomena is to manage and integrate the spatial dimension Property values are considered by many authors as the result of complex and intricate combination of externalities and position rents Can 1992 Dubin 1992 Waddell et al 1993 Krantz et al 1982 The construction of evaluative scenarios using GIS data bases allows connection between the practice of urban transformation assessment and assessment of real estate 2 4 Visualisation and Participative GIS Since real estate brokerage is a service industry its product is not tangible Quality service in the business equates to knowledge experience and reputation GIS is a technical tool but it is very flexible in the production of maps this potential can be harnessed to propose appropriate maps from the person with whom you must deal with GIS focuses on the development of user friendly GIS interfaces to promote GIS use within more inclusive participatory decision making processes 3 Some further step to understand GIS The results of the survey show that the spread increased use of GIS is limited to the use of databases and the construction of maps The use of GIS for the as

328 A Poletti sessment is still quite modest and it is due in part to the whole body of knowledge required but mainly to the unavailability of ad hoc geographic systems The use of GIS for the construction of scenarios is even being a pioneer The dimension of participation through the GIS has not yet been explored We must take into account the fact that GIS is increasingly present in our daily lives almost unnoticed but for example the completeness of the information leads to problems of competitiveness and competition We can list a few items that have slowed the construction of such systems one problem and perhaps the most difficult is the lack of uniform information current and reliable to feed any of the technology used by local real estate companies The lack of information or the monopoly of it by some agencies are common and frequent problems in the real estate sector of many countries Kummerow and Chan 2004 The second problem is time consuming construction and advantages of systems visible only in the medium long term And then the difficulty of accepting the proposed conceptual model if not properly centrality of the instrument instead of the object i e the assessment researchers and funders almost always underestimate how much effort is required to maintain the metasystem This is the reason why many database initiatives fail in the long term Business operators in general do not offer products and services of appropriate quality and against the application appraisers is often not able to evaluate appreciate the quality of products and services so demand is weak and unable to govern the process of building the system The data component requires more thought to the purpose to be achieved both in terms of selection of data both useful in relation to the characteristics that must be Sometimes the same spatial phenomena can be interpreted according to different points of view with the no collimating generation of information assets in this sense we must pay attention especially in the acquisition of new databases methods of classification and their degree of universality However cost data is much harder to pin down they tend not to be stored in standard ways or even at the individual building level money comes out of different pockets and organizations are often reluctant to provide or release it Moreover GIS combines multiple datasets in a spatial specific manner and integrate relative values of significance into each of the datasets or layers It allow visual representation of the spatial distribution of environmental information It improved information delivery time and resources optimization building of spatially specific indicators making systematic replicable transparent spatial assessment multiple factors definition of precise and spatially specific measures visual comparison of changes over time It identifies general site suitability for development including area which sever development constraints where construction costs will be higher as well as sensitive environmental areas It documents factors considered in selecting design It allows creation of virtual models of the site which can be seen in 3D rotated and overlaid with theme information to discover relationships otherwise hidden to the assessor s eye It can be integrated with other technologies web wireless RFid

Leveraging GIS to Enhance Real Estate and Urban Areas performance 329 It allows evaluations of the relationships of individual dwellings to the surrounding site from a neighbourhood or site perspective It takes advantage of high resolution imagery available a both town and regional scales Buildings are self evidently settings or contexts for human activity and behaviour Activities can be studied at different levels of spatial resolution from individual behaviours at one end of the scale through to society at the other In this context GIS appear to the right environment to find or put environmental and social considerations about commercial property that is more closely aligned with economic return The real estate appraisal should also consider the buildings according to the categories of quality based on performance use It refers especially to designing for manageability and to the classification provided in Soft Landing Methodology7 Widespread use of information that promotes the implementation of sustainability principles in property development and construction close the virtuous circle of the assessment on the scale of urban transformation The simultaneous consideration of economic environmental and social issues can provide a more profound knowledge about property characteristics and associated performance In principle we arrive at an argument in a holistic way exceeding the Triple Bottom Lines Pope J Annandale D Morrison Saunders A 2004 in the sense of separateness of the three components in the city government and the territory Nonetheless many major banks are currently trying to develop their own rating systems This offers the opportunity to foster sustainable development among real estate projects of every type and scale As banks become more aware of the risks and opportunities associated with sustainability issues it is likely they will be willing to integrate corresponding performance criteria within their real estate rating systems Assessors8 have the role of information managers in a market where the distribution of information is traditionally considered asymmetrical 4 Conclusions A comparative review of factors for and against the use of GIS in Real Estate stands for the previous When comparing two properties that have similar physical makeup aspects of the property context may provide useful information regarding differences in value Geographic Information Systems allows us to explore these relationships visually by making maps and more systematically through as The Softh Landings Framework for better briefing design handover and building performance in use by Usable Building Trust There are 4 categories of buildings in terms of their manageability derived from devices that are istalled 8 TEGoVA s rating system includes the rating criterion sustainability TEGoVA 2003 Sadly the TEGoVA approach fails to define or specified sustainability 7

330 A Poletti sociative operations that we can use to add new information concerning the context of properties that we may be interested in This may help us in our work and in promoting a quality Real Estate for a city on a human scale once considered the strengths and weaknesses The current regeneration model can not deal with exceptional conditions affecting the sector now The circumstances require a new approach and a willingness to be innovative A good investment should look to the long term if cultivated In the built environment we need to invest for the long term It is more sustainable creates activities that people grow to love and avoid the cost of bad design The model Assimpredil though not intentionally was built to provide a service to members to help them reduce business risk given the characteristics of the real estate market will not absorb the surplus of supply in a short time moves in the same direction to identify those most suitable investments with greater ability to succeed In addition a urban transformation process is aimed at building sustainable quality due to its characteristic to consider the entire life cycle The valuation of real estate assets and investments to be allocated in areas of transformation assessment must be addressed increasingly necessarily in the presence of a system of decision unencumbered by the rules Geographic Information System is conceptualized to allows for the description measurement and assessment of various aspects of building and urban performance The use of performance indicators are identified in the tested sustainability assessment models to be transferred along the life cycle The environmental research community and the building has a central role in determining the standardization of terminology and improving the exchange of ideas between financial and environmental research disciplines The simultaneous consideration of economic environmental and social is able to provide a deeper knowledge on the properties and characteristics associated with performance This will create a more robust assessment approach and lead to greater reliability of assessment results Bibliography Bartley B 2007 Supporting Evidence based Spatial Planning and Analysis in Ireland Towards the Development of All Island Spatial Databases Unpublished paper presented at the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis Workshop 15th February Maynooth Ireland Bernstein S 2006 How Streetcars Helped Build American Cities In Street Smart Streetcars and Cities in the Twenty First Century eds G Ohland Shelley P Reconnecting America 2006 Can A 1990 The Measurement of Neighbourhood Dynamics in Urban House Prices Economic Geography 66 pp 254 272 Can A 1992 Residential Quality Assessment Alternative Approaches Using GIS The Annals of Regional Science 26 pp 97 110 CEC 2007 Directive 2007 2 EC of 14th March Establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community INSPIRE European Parliament and the Council of the European Union Official Journal of the European Union L108 1 24 5 2007